PREPARING TO SAY GOODBYE TO LEICESTER, BUT ALSO HELLO TO WHAT COMES NEXT

With less than two weeks to go before we finish the first chapter of our adventure, members of the FIFA Master 23rd edition class are starting to deal with the nostalgic idea of saying goodbye to Leicester, our home for the Humanities of Sport module since September at De Montfort University’s International Centre for Sports History and Culture.

There are too many new stories to tell since the last class update was published one month ago. But you can be sure our knowledge and understanding of sport keeps increasing in class, the experiences out of class keep accumulating and the emotions everywhere around us keep overflowing. All of this does not even take into account that we also have the FIFA Men’s World Cup taking place at the same time as our studies! Overall, what a month it has been!

Yes, we are following every game or reading match reports where we can. Between lectures, assessments, meetings and directed reading (which has multiplied exponentially), we strive to make time to keep at least one eye on the most famous event in global sport.

Our international football supporter experience has been made even more special as we have bonded so much as a group that you start feeling a little bit Korean, Brazilian, Costa Rican, French, Canadian, Nigerian… and every other one of the 23 nationalities we share among the 27 students enrolled on this prestigious course and who are currently living and studying in these unique circumstances.

Never before in the history of the FIFA Master has a major sporting event such as the FIFA Men’s World Cup been held in parallel with the course term. But this has just made us celebrate even more our various national team’s triumphs and also joined in consoling each other whenever we experience national team failures. This is the epitome of what we will be doing for each other for the rest of our lives – sharing our successes and providing support whenever it is needed.

We are already heartbroken to leave our dorms in Leicester, where we have spent almost three months now, not just learning about how to lead change in the sports industry, but also learning about the wider world and the cultural impact of sport wherever it is played.

Some will fly home during our Christmas break, some will not. But all of us will arrive in Milan ready for the Sport Management module at SDA Bocconi in the first week of January and with the desire for more of everything we have so far experienced. The amazing, the great, and the incredible. 

The second chapter is fast approaching!

David Goldberg (Costa Rica), FIFA Master 23rd edition student.

FIFA Master - International Master in Management, Law and Humanities of Sport, ranked No.1 Course in Europe 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021 and 2022 by the SportBusiness International global rankings.

Organised by CIES in partnership with De Montfort University (United Kingdom), SDA Bocconi School of Management (Italy) and the University of Neuchâtel (Switzerland).

As of 3rd October 2022 the CIES has officially opened the application process for the 24th edition (2023-2024) of the FIFA Master.

Please note that the deadline for applying is midday (12pm) Central European Time on Friday 13th January 2023.

Please click on this link to access the online application form.